Remember those days Night crawlers/worms and cratfish

SMSNYDER said:

I was in a sporting goods store yesterday and couldn't help but notice the 1000 of different plastic worms, minnows and crayfish patterns . Those things look so real. I can remember the good old days when I turn logs to look for red worms. Stayed up all night after a rain with a flashlight looking for night crawlers. Turning rocks in the stream looking for cray fish. Yep those were the days of simple fishing.

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Hate to say this, back in jr high days, a neighbor kid would bring over this long metal ground probe we plugged into a socket. The nightcrawlers would exit the ground quickly. We had to be careful not to grab worms until we unplugged it.
Insane, cruel, effective for bait for sucker tournaments.

SMSNYDER said:

I was in a sporting goods store yesterday and couldn't help but notice the 1000 of different plastic worms, minnows and crayfish patterns . Those things look so real. I can remember the good old days when I turn logs to look for red worms. Stayed up all night after a rain with a flashlight looking for night crawlers. Turning rocks in the stream looking for cray fish. Yep those were the days of simple fishing.

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Now you got to have a $3500 reel, $5000 bamboo rod and a tackle box full of realistic flies

I remember the using the predecessor to the tenkara rod - bamboo cane with string tied to it and a worm on the other end... Fun days!!

Me and my Father in Law would go to the local golf course at night. We would get permission first. But we had to stay off the greens. We would get a #10 can full of worms. This was all before fly fishing.

We ate the crayfish we caught.

I was going through some old junk last month and came across a green round cage with a cork top that I used to carry my crickets in when trout fishing the Sierra's as a kid. Old school....

My yard has always been a haven for nightcrawlers. When the Kids were little, that became a favorite pastime to go out after a rain and pick 'crawlers, so much so that I started running the sprinklers to soak things down just to manufacture a hunt. Fun times, both with the entire family crawling around with flashlights whooping & hollering & then watching the Kids use them later-on to catch Perch, 'Gills, Bass & Yellow Bullheads. I built them a buried, screened worm box in the garden. Worm-picking was a popular family activity for several summers as was catching 'hoppers when I was a kid. My Kids had it made relative to carry containers with the wide variety of plastic tubs & boxes available; when I was wee little, empty Band-aid & tobacco tins were highly-valued treasures.

nightcrawlers and a 5 ft Fenwick glass . those were great days.

We had our worm haunts, enroute to the Sangre de Cristos. Red worms from a seep creek.

The same Army surplus pack shovel would later be used to flatten the pad for a tent and destroy delicate stream side environment while young boys searched for Indian artifacts, mining detritus, and dinosaurs. Or, we built dams of marvelous stature to stop stream flow below. Native engineers were our tutors, so sticks and branches hacked from trees, along with mud were our construction material.

Mostly, a reddish, hard egg fused to an Eagle Claw, with (100 lb, seemingly) leader was our lure of choice.

hbmcc said:

with (100 lb, seemingly) leader

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Lol. When we fly-fished the local crick or other brush-laden/tree-lined, small Montana streams, we had no concept (or use for) tapered leaders or tippets. Straight 10# leader usually "borrowed" from a spinning reel was our choice. It increased chances of retrieving our few dries from the ever-present hordes of predatory branches that just awaited the opportunity to capture a size 10 Adams or Wulff pattern.

flybug.pa. said:

nightcrawlers and a 5 ft Fenwick glass . those were great days.

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Had great luck for bass with frogs flipped on Lilly pads with my fly rod

Love to see them hover under the Lilly pad before the strike. Could usually get 3to4 bass per frog

I would also throw out cans of sweet corn by an old rr trestle for carp . Slip a few kernels on a size 8 hook and had good luck. Caught hundreds in my youth.

Small cray fish and hellgrammites worked well in the rivers for small mouths

My leaders were made of 4 feet of Holiday gas station brand 12 lb test mono

500 yds for around $2

Jim Ficklin said:

Lol. When we fly-fished the local crick or other brush-laden/tree-lined, small Montana streams, we had no concept (or use for) tapered leaders or tippets. Straight 10# leader usually "borrowed" from a spinning reel was our choice. It increased chances of retrieving our few dries from the ever-present hordes of predatory branches that just awaited the opportunity to capture a size 10 Adams or Wulff pattern.

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Funny how we had just as much or more fun without spendy equipment . . .

Remember the coffee can for worms?

I remember Mom whacking me with a wooden spoon when she found a tobacco tin of maggots in her refrigerator . . . I didn't do that again . . .

I remember having a small galvanized metal container for carrying your worms while fishing. It had two bent wire clips to attach it your belt and a hinged lid. 'May have had a perforated top for air circulation. It was curved, to conformed to the shape of your hip, so it wouldn't get in the way.

..... Much classier than SMSNYDER's coffee can.

Liverwurst. Seriously, it works. Once, somewhere northeast of Quebec City our first Brittany Spaniel, Gypsy grabbed a hook loaded with some. Hilarity ensued.

SMSNYDER said:

Remember the coffee can for worms?

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Remember the coffee can of worms...left in the trunk....for over two weeks....in the sun?

Yah, either does my mom.

Been there, done that too! And while not a fishing-related event, the drake Mallard that was "resurrected" in the trunk of my old '51 Chev during my high school years created quite the frenzy when it flew-out after the trunk lid was opened at the local A&W . . .